Three cases brought against the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Prince Dapo Abiodun, disputing his victory in the party primaries held on May 26, 2022, were dismissed by a Federal High Court in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun.
The cases were rejected by Hon. Justice Joyce O Abdulmalik for a variety of reasons, including lack of standing to sue, lack of jurisdiction, incompetence, frivolity, an academic exercise, and statute of limitations.
In each of the three cases, the judge additionally granted a "joint cost" of N2 million to the APC and its candidate instead of the plaintiffs.
A person who did not vote in a primary election for an office cannot use the court's limited jurisdiction to contest the results of that primary, according to the judge in Mrs Sherifat Eweje's lawsuit against the APC and Dapo Abiodun.
Mrs Eweje purchased a form for a legislative seat but not a form for the governorship, the judge commented.
The judge said, "Mrs Eweje even withdrew her candidacy on May 10, 2022, well before she filed the lawsuit and before the Governorship primary was held on May 26, 2022."
In that circumstance, the court concluded and declared that Plaintiff (Mrs Eweje) had no locus standi to bring the action. The court also held that Plaintiff’s suit is statute-barred because it was filed more than 14 days after the cause of action arose. Consequently, the court declared the suit incompetent and struck it out, describing all other issues raised in the case as academic issues, since the court has no jurisdiction.
The court awarded a joint cost of ₦2m in favour of the 1st and 2nd Defendants for the institution of the suit.
In the second case filed by Semiu Olanrewaju Alao, the Court resolved the issue of locus standi first. The Judge found that the Plaintiffs were not aspirants because by their own averments, they were not even sold delegate forms and as such, did not participate in any election whether primary or delegates elections.
This meant that some of the Plaintiffs were not aspirants in the primary elections and as such did not qualify under the Constitution to file the case. The Judge then declared that the Plaintiffs who were not aspirants had no locus standi to file the case.
Regarding the singular Plaintiff who claimed to be a delegate, the Judge remarked that all the Plaintiffs acknowledged that 4th Defendant is the Chairman of 5th Defendant and yet the document that the Plaintiffs showed highlighting the alleged delegate’s name as a delegate was not authenticated by the said 4th Defendant as sent to the National Chairman.
The court concluded that the Plaintiffs’ counsel failed woefully to establish that 2nd Plaintiff was a delegate and thus failed to establish the locus standi of the Plaintiffs to file the case. The court then declared the case as incompetent. A Cost of ₦2 million was awarded against the Plaintiffs in favour of 1st, 4th, and 5th Defendants.
In the third case, Nuberu Olufemi Adesanya & 2 Ors v. INEC & 3 Ors, the Court cited the case of Alli Modu Sheriff v. PDP., to the effect that a political party is a voluntary club and its decisions are binding on its members who must obey the Party or leave the Party.
Ruling on objections raised by APC, the court agreed that under the APC Constitution, offences against the party include filing an action against Party or its officials without first exhausting internal remedies.
The court found that the purported complaint filed by the Plaintiffs was misdirected as under the Party Constitution, it must start from the ward level and climb its way up.
The Court held that the Plaintiff did not exhaust the internal remedy of the party and the case filed was “not justiciable.”
The court added that the parties had an obligation to exhaust internal remedies but failed to do so. Instead of submitting complaints to their wards and working those complaints up the ladder of the Party’s dispute resolution structure, they rushed to court and filed cases that pertain to matters that are not justiciable, being internal affairs of APC.
The court reminded the litigants that APC is a voluntary organisation and that the will of the majority will prevail in APC. A joint cost of ₦2m was also awarded in favour of the 1st – 3rd Defendants in the matter.